Monument record MDO25317 - Field system on Great Hill, Winterborne St Martin

Fragments of a field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs.

SY 627876. Poorly defined field system of Iron Age/Romano British type, much spread by ploughing. Field banks and lynchets average 0.2 and 0.4m in height respectively. SY 638873. Iron Age/Romano British field system with low and spread field banks and lynchets, the lynchets being most definite in the slopes rising from Ridge Bottom. Fragmentary banks and lynchets can be seen on Great Hill, on Shorn Hill recent cultivation has reduced the system to only faint traces. <1> (Centred SY 635873). Broken remains of 'Celtic' fields occur on Shorn Hill and Great Hill, extending south of the Ridgeway. (See SY 68 NW 63) and east to Ridge Hill (see SY 68 NE 9). Original field sides are between 30 yds and 60 yds long, and lynchets are up to 8 feet high. A slight boundary bank and ditch of Medieval or later date runs north from a round barrow (SY 64288674 to SY 64338717). Many of the field divisions have been flattened by subsequent cultivation, leaving 'Celtic' lynchets in continuous lines along the contours, giving a misleading effect of strip fields, as on the south east side of Great Hill. North west of Shorn Hill and south west of Great hill are long narrow fields, apparently later than the normal 'Celtic' field, but bounded by contour lynchets, or up and down hill, by low flinty banks. In places they may have utilised the lynchets of previous fields as boundaries. Complete fields are usually 26 yds or 37 yds wide and 100 yards to 160 yards long. On Great Hill faint traces of slight banked fields of similar type have been much disturbed by narrow rig ploughing. In proportion and form these long fields are akin to 'Celtic' long fields, elsewhere thought to be Romano-British, but their extent and the absence of a known Romano-British settlement suggests they may be Medieval. <2> The Celtic field system and possible Medieval fields around Great Hill and the south-east side of Shorn Hill are generally as described by RCHM <2>. but in the area north-west of shorn Hill, centred SY 632876 all traces except one scarp running along the east side of the lane south from Pen Barn have been virtually ploughed out. The remains are most prominent on the north-east and south-east sides of Great Hill (centred SY 642872) and at Ridge Bottom between Shorn Hill and Great Hill (SY 634869). The boundary bank and ditch noted by RCHM (SY 6428-8674-SY 64338717) has been ploughed out. Area outlined on 1:10560 Record Sheet. <4> Fragments of a field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs <5-12>. These features were digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Record last edited

Oct 26 2023 9:46AM